Clay pigeon shooting is a sport involving shooting a shotgun at special flying targets, known as clay pigeons or clay targets. A machine called a trap throws the clay pigeons into the air as singles or doubles or on the ground as a “rabbit.” The targets can be thrown at a great variety of trajectories, angles, speeds, elevations, and distances. The targets are typically in the shape of an inverted saucer. They are designed to withstand being thrown by a trap at high speeds, but are also intended to be easily broken when hit by just a few shot pellets discharged by a shotgun. The targets are made to precise specifications regarding their weight and dimensions, and several different target types are established by international standards.
While various sensor-based systems for various sports have been developed, they typically include a sensor attached only to the implement that will strike a moving object. None track the moving object separately or in relation to the striking implement. Also, none involve sensors attached to the moving object to be struck as this would greatly increase the cost of the system. First, a sport using multiple targets would require each target to have its own sensor installed. Second, a sensor on a clay pigeon would likely be destroyed by the collision with the shot pellets that is the sport's objective, so the sensor would not be reusable. Finally, creating an object to be tracked having an attached sensor that has the same performance characteristics as the standard version of the object may require considerable research and development effort. None of the existing sport-based sensor systems provide the quality of data that would be derived from tracking the moving object and implement separately and in relation to each other.
As is shown in FIG. 1, it is well-known that the shooter 100 with a conventional shotgun 102 has to visually establish an initial point of aim 104 at the flying clay pigeon target 112 at a pickup point 114 after the target is thrown, determine the expected flight path 116 of the target, and establish a final point of aim 106 before pulling the trigger that leads the target by a sufficient distance 110 that the discharged shot pellets 108 do not miss behind the target. The final point of aim must also ensure the discharged shot pellets do not miss above, below, or in front of the target. Although significant amounts of motion analysis have been performed for the striking implement used in some sports, such as golf clubs, baseball bats, and tennis rackets, a dearth of quantitative data exists that establishes the difference between an expert and a non-expert for clay pigeon shooting, or that allows the shooter to ascertain how changes in his/her shooting motion affect the qualitative results. As a result, it would be highly useful to obtain data that define the characteristics of expert clay pigeon shooting with a shotgun and then using that data to coach non-experts to improve their performance.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved system for analyzing performance of an activity involving using an implement to strike directly or indirectly a moving target object effectively that determines the characteristics of expert usage of a shotgun for shooting clay pigeons without attaching a sensor to the object being tracked. In this regard, the various embodiments of the present invention substantially fulfill at least some of these needs. In this respect, the system for analyzing performance of an activity involving using an implement to strike directly or indirectly a moving target object effectively according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of enabling determination of the characteristics of expert usage of a shotgun for shooting clay pigeons without attaching a sensor to the object being tracked.